Travelers arriving from foreign countries provide information to customs officials to ensure compliance with the laws of the nation to which they are arriving. For example, a family returning to the United States provides the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and its personnel with information used to ensure the family complies with United States (U.S.) laws. The information, while targeted to security and law enforcement topics, can vary greatly depending on the family's situation. In the previous example, one adult parent or guardian may fill out a CPB form 6059B on behalf of the other member of the family, e.g., for the children, as well as, other adults such as a spouse. U.S. Form 6059B is used to collect information from travelers arriving from abroad. Form 6059B, while familiar to some travelers, can pose issues to inexperience travelers or travelers with uncommon situations. These problems typically manifest themselves when the traveler meets with a customs officer for a brief interview. For example, it is not uncommon for CBP personnel to note errors or omissions on Form 6059B as part of interviewing travelers arriving in the U.S. Trained CBP personnel can aid the traveler to resolve these issues, but it may delay other travelers or take CBP personnel away from other duties. In some cases, travelers undergo additional screening to resolve these issues. Secondary screening, which is more in-depth, is time consuming but it ensures compliance with the relevant laws. These situations increase the overall time it takes to properly screen groups of travelers. This can result in traveler delay and/or involve more CBP personnel to minimize wait times. Sources of delay include, but are not limited to, travelers failing to provide full and accurate information, providing misleading information, providing inconsistent information, and so on.
Popular modes of international travel compound these delays because they typically hold large numbers of travelers. Airplanes, ships, and trains, for example, carry large numbers of people that proceed through customs at substantially the same time. Although airports, border crossing stations, and docks for passenger ships are designed to handle large numbers, it is not uncommon for delays to occur when processing large crowds over a short period of time. Delays can occur as travelers complete documents, move through customs areas, and meet with a customs official. While delays may be expected to some extent, a large number of factors can compound custom review delays, which in-turn may lead to traveler dissatisfaction that may even result in a negative perception.